Laika Shows Us How They Make Stop-Motion Animation Look So Ridiculously Perfect

A close-up look at Kubo — behind him you can see a second one demonstrating how to animate a shot. Photo: Beth Elderkin

If there's one name that's become synonymous with stop-motion animation, it's Laika. The Oscar-winning animation studio has brought us iconic films like Coraline, ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. As they prepare for their latest venture, Missing Link, Laika has brought its best animators to San Diego Comic-Con to show us exactly how they bring these stories to life. And now... we're going to show you, too.

Laika has brought its Laika Live exhibit back to San Diego and it's an impressively fun experience. The large exhibition featured tons of props, puppets and sets from some of the studio's most popular films, with animators in their stations showing how they make, move and film these creations.

Characters from all their ironic films were on hand to take photos with fans and Coraline star Teri Hatcher even stopped by to declare that playing The Other Mother was her favourite role to date. It's a special year for the studio because they're celebrating the tenth anniversary of Coraline, based on the classic Neil Gaiman story.

The studio also gave us a peek at their next film, Missing Link, with animators telling us it's pushing the boundaries of stop-motion animation — especially with how they represent breathing and fur movement.

It stars Zach Galifianakis as Mr. Link, a mysterious creature discovered by researcher Sir Lionel Frost (Hugh Jackman) in the Pacific Northwest and they go on an adventure to find Shangri-La and Link's long-lost family. The film also features Zoe Saldana and is set to come out April 2019.

Be sure to check out our video for a gorgeous look at Laika Live. We've also got a slideshow below featuring some of our favourite highlights.

Photo: Beth Elderkin

The Missing Link peeks out in a sneak peek at Laika's next film.

Photo: Beth Elderkin

The Box Trolls crew is having a dance.

Photo: Beth Elderkin

Every character has dozens of interchangeable faces for dialogue and expression options.

Photo: Beth Elderkin

Coraline's otherworldly home, featuring her Other Mother and Father.

Photo: Beth Elderkin

Some fan art and letters that have been sent to Laika.

Trending Stories Right Now

While some folks may be worrying about Google’s next phone, especially with leaks suggesting the Pixel 3 could sport the biggest notch we’ve seen on a handset yet, it seems Google may have more immediate concerns after the release of Android 9 Pie created issues with charging speeds on the original Pixel XL.

GIF. Tom Caswell (Gizmodo)
Anki doesn't think it's cracked the code and developed the perfect robot to work at the center of your smart home, but with Vector it feels it's created a robot adorable enough, and smart enough, to tide you over until the future finally catches up with our desire.